Kelsi and Cohen

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Sorry for the delay. Cohen's MRI and CT came back clean! I love getting these results. It's such a huge relief.Cohen's eyes are really dry from chemo and radiation. The Ophthalmologist wants us to put a very warm rag on his eyes and then prescription eye drops every night for two months to see if that helps. He also wants us to periodically put artificial tear drops in his eyes. His concern is that if we didn't do this then his eyes would soon get a really bad infection.The Dermatologist said Cohen's moles look fine. She wants us to watch them for irregular growth, but isn't concerned.All in all everything went really well. Thank you so so so so so so much for sending all of the great thoughts and prayers Cohen's way. We appreciate it! His next scans are in June; around the same time.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Sorry for the late post. Cohen has his scans, MRI & CT, tomorrow morning. He sees his Oncologist tomorrow as well so we will know the scan results right after. One of his eyes gets a little irritated every now and again so he is seeing the eye doctor later in the afternoon. He also has a few moles on his body, with him having radiation he is at a higher risk for Melinoma, he is seeing the Dermatologist on Wednesday.Please keep our little man in your prayers. It's really hard for me going through all if this every 3 months but it is worth knowing that he is still doing good. I'm more nervous this time because he has the other two appointments.Thank you!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Cohen's MRI and CT scan came back clean. His blood work and echocardiogram came back good as well. Yay for our little buddy. He's been in remission for almost a year and a half now. We're so blessed with how well both Kelsi and Cohen are doing. Thank you all so much for your support, thoughts, and prayers. We hope you all have a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!Thank you!!! xoxoNormally I post a picture but I left my camera at work :(

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Cohen is going in for his scans tomorrow. Since he had an allergic reaction to the contrast for the CT scan the last two times he will get a MRI for his chest and abdomen and a CT scan for his head. He will then have an echocardiogram and a doctor visit the next day. Please keep our little buddy in your thoughts and prayers; I will update on Tuesday when we know the results. :o)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Great news first. Cohen's scan came back clean!!! Kelsi is doing great!!!

Cohen's day started off pretty good. We weren't sure if he was going to stay still for the CT scan so we prepped him for sedation. He was ok without eating since he was going to get a sucker and a new car. He was even brave when he got poked twice when they were trying to give him an iv. I kept reminding him that if he stayed still during the scan he would get a sucker and a car and not have to be asleep. He did it. He was so still that they only needed to do the scan once. Here's the kicker. They give him contrast that he has to drink over an hour and then they give him contrast through his iv during the scan. He has had both of these contrasts since day one of being diagnosed but last June he had a small allergic reaction that they were able to treat with benedryl. This time they pretreated him with a steroid and benedryl to prevent a reaction. Well that didn't work. He had a really bad reaction, that luckily started after the scan was done. His face started turning a red/purple color and he was wheezing. Poor kid had a panicked mom, a couple doctors, and a handful of nurses around him acting fast. The medicines they gave him helped pretty quickly. He was watched for about two hours an then sent home. He was happy when he final got what he was promised.

Kelsi's appointment went really well. The doctor said she looks great. They turned her pacemaker down to 60 bpm. Since she is getting older her heart doesn't need to beat any faster but her heart will sometimes beat faster on it's own, especially when she's active. By turning her pacemaker down it saves on battery time. She will probably need the battery replaced in 6 years.

My kids are doing great and I love that it's almost been 10 1/2 months since we've had to stay at the hospital. Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

And things have been going great. But before I update you on what's been going on recently I wanted to let you know what's coming up. Cohen has his scan next week so please keep him in your prayers. Kelsi has her cardiology check up next week as well so please keep her in your prayers. I will update the results next week.

Kelsi started school again last month, 1st grade, and she is a very smart girl. She's been learning challenging spelling words and has been getting 100% + the bonus words. I'm so very proud of her. She loves school and loves to read. I hope that determination continues throughout the years. She started dance in the summer and loved it. We were worried that she'd get too tired because of her heart, but she's doing great so we decided to put her into tumbling during the fall. Her life is so busy right now. Full days of school, homework every night (reading, spelling, and a worksheet,) and tumbling. She's free during the weekends and plays with her brother and friends. That's weird in it's self. When your child says can I go play at my friend's house? I'm just like but don't you want to stay here and play with us? Parents get boring to their kids too soon! It's ok though because at least she has friends that she can play with. But oh does the drama start at a young age!

Cohen started preschool last month as well. He likes it some days and not others. That's to be expected, but for the most part he likes it. His speech is getting much better and he has friends. He's so excited to have friends that he talks about them all the time. I can't believe how big he is getting.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Support can mean a so many different things when you are going through something difficult. It means having someone to listen when all you can do is vent, having a shoulder to cry on when you can no longer hold back your tears, someone offering something so simple when you just can't do it yourself, someone bringing you food when your sick of eating the same thing, someone giving you advice when they've been there, etc. There is a support group that we belong to that do all of those things and much more for us and for others. They were there for us when what we were going through wasn't even related to what they're about. Their group name is Intermountain Healing Hearts. They are a support group for families of children or adults with congenital heart defects (CHDs) and heart disease. We joined the group 2 days after Kelsi's last open heart surgery. Many of the members supported us through Cohen's cancer treatment as well. I've become very close friends with many of the members. Kelsi has become friends with kids that have 'heart' in common.

Their annual 'Healing Hearts' walk will take place on September 12th at the Riverview Park. The event starts promptly at 9:30am. Same day registration begins at 8:00am. Early registration is now until August 26th. To participate the registration fee is $10.00 per person or $50 per immediate family. The registration fee includes receiving a t-shirt for the event. There is no registration fee required for those to participate with a CHD.Gather your family and friends to support Intermountain Healing Hearts by registering at www.intermountainhealinghearts.org. Donations are tax deductible.

I know I recently asked help supporting Make-A-Wish but this is also something that means so much to our little family. This group was the very first support, outside of family and friends, we received. It even means that much more to us because they supported us through Cohen's trials.